Stimulating Baihui and Fengchi may relieve migraine by jointly suppressing inflammatory signalling and oxygen-stress pathways identified through network-based biological analysis.
Researchers identified biological targets associated with the Baihui and Fengchi acupoints and compared them with migraine-related targets. They used pathway-enrichment databases to identify shared inflammatory and oxygen-response mechanisms, then tested these pathways in rats with nitroglycerin-induced migraine treated with acupuncture, needle twisting, or electroacupuncture.
The analysis highlighted hypoxia-inducible factor signalling, interleukin signalling, and inflammatory-response pathways as central links between the acupoints and migraine. Acupoint stimulation altered inflammatory molecules and key pathway regulators, including heme oxygenase, protein kinase B, signal transducer and activator of transcription, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase, supporting a mechanism involving reduced inflammation and modified cellular stress responses.
